As we are almost done with the development of the IBM Lotus Notes Browser plug-in, now is a good time to talk about packaging & installation. We started the development of the plug-on with the following goals:

Keep the browser plug-in size as small as possible. We were benchmarking with the Adobe Reader install size. This means a size of about 60MB.

Keep the browser plug-in installer as easy as possible

Shorten the installation time - our goal was a minute to install & setup.

Very aggressive goals to begin with (contrast this to the basic client install size of 200MB). But I am happy to note here that we have almost achieved these goals as some of you will see it in the code-drops you are getting, and others as you get hold of it at a later stage when it's GA'ed. We would surely like to get your comments related to this. What we have done is:

Have a minimum kit - which is about 62 MB, almost all that you need to run your existing Domino Application in the 2 browsers we will support.

Have a larger kit - about 125 MB, which includes the minimum above, but in addition also includes the Notes JVM which is required if you have applications that have Java in the design.

You can decide which is required by your users.

Another goal that we have achieved, is to simplify the installation. We will continue to have MSI installer, as requested by most of the customers we talked to, but the installation has 2 screen to begin with and then installs within a minute on my Windows7 desktop that I have. I think this is HUGE!! I am sure your admin's and user's will find this beneficial.

So the goal of Install & Setup of a minute-each definitely is something that is already achieved. It's so amazing that during some of the testing I was doing today, I literally installed/un-installed the product a good number of times, without much of a wait.

If you have any thoughts on the installation, packaging of the Notes Browser Plug-in, we would love to hear your thoughts. Do comment on this.

Wow! What a response we have received for "Notes Application Browser Plugin for Windows" (what a long name - but that's just the 1st attempt). It's mind blowing. Never expected such a response from all the customers. So a quick recap of what it is (& I am proud to have been working on it along with some of my colleagues)

A small Notes Client package, which includes:

Components of Basic Notes Client which are needed to run notes applications

browser integration components

Allowing, customers to run their Notes applications nside a browser, UNMODIFIED. The last word has huge significance for customers. No Modifications needed to get their application running inside a browser.

This is huge for customers that have thousands of applications, and cannot move all of them to XPages. Yes, they do want to move applications to XPages, but it takes time. New applications definitely can and will be on XPages, but existing applications, especially the old ones which are used rarely, can now be webified with the help of this plugin, no modifications needed.

This allows customers to also move earlier to the Web for their notes/domino needs. They can use iNotes for Mail (and if you have not, please check out the 8.5.3/8.5.4 version of iNotes - lots of new features), and use the Browser Plugin for the rest of their applications.

I will write more on this in the coming months as we have customers use this and provide feedback. Here's a quick snapshot of my discussion database opened inside the browser.

that's the official name as we have it. "Lotus Notes Browser Plug-in". There have been a number of questions which I will try to address here..

This is not a replacement for XPages. Although both Xpages and the plug-in give you the ability to run your application inside a browser, XPage has huge advantages since it truly gives you WEB capabilities. The Notes Browser plug-in is mainly geared towards notes apps that you cannot move to XPages because you no longer have the original developer, nor believe it's cost beneficial due to it's in-frequent use.

Good article on the reason & benefits of the Browser Plugin in Ed Brill's Blog -> Ed's Blog Link

Ed is calling it the App-player, but I am sure in the next 2-3 months, final name will come out.

So, LS2012 is over and behind us. Judging from the response we had for the Notes 8.5.4 release, and especially the Notes Social Edition, I can see that we @Lotus have our work cut out. There's lots of enthusiasm amongst our users for the features in these, and we need to work hard to deliver these, in time, with quality. We will do our best!!

Embedded Experiences was another hot topic in the conference. In the final "Ask the developer" session, there were a number of praises doled out for the this. Kudos to Andrew Davis and his team for all the hard work that has gone into it. It's going to raise the Notes Client way above the rest of the pack. Read a lot about it in Ryan Baxter's blog.

"Ask the Developers" is the last session at Lotusphere (besides the "Closing Ceremony"), where customers get to ask questions to the developers developing all these COOL Lotus applications. As always, the room was packed, and the stage was filled with senior techies from ICS/Lotus products (oh yah, this time, I was amongst one of them :-) ). Interestingly more than 50% of the quesitons were around C&S (Calendaring & Scheduling). Great news was that we have already implemented some of the key asks (such as Rolling Month, Weekly Planner view) in the 8.5.4 release. But sure, there were few that we will take back and look at over the next few releases. Great feedback from the users though.

Another successful, busy and crowded Lotusphere. Great meeting customers and interacting!!